used to help so many people, therefore we should try to make an effort to make it accessible. the district i live in there are no clubs. the fab factors has failed and now the state of california is in process of letting thousands of low crime offenders and by having medical marijuana dispensaries in safe locations accessible to the public -- what you're doing is taking that money out of the criminal elm, putting in the community, putting as part of a collective, helping out local patients. a lots of people are not foreign nate like us that can take the time to see you and talk to you in the middle of the day. these people are disabled, they need to ride the bus, and i don't think it's fair to have all those things in one concentrated portion of the city. i love san francisco, i love the progressive views and as a state that has adopted medical

marijuana, we ask that air legislature and city supervisors at least make this accessible to the masses as opposed to blocking it down and bringing more regulations at a time where we're just about to get this out to the public and get more patients to use it. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. math, nicholas smiley, cj russell, patricia. >> my name is tom, i want to make aware that there are a lot of patients the clubs do

provide ref knew for the city. there are tax. the more clubs, the more help to the city. i've gone to a totally different neighborhood just to get away from a club that i've gone through that i know i'm going to be in a long line, there's a long line of patients, a long wait. i'll definite -- i'll /tkhrebtly go to another neighborhood and spend time on a bus to go to a club and i get there disappointed because they're also in demand of more clubs because they're also crowded. i want to point out it's revenues for the community and thank you for your time. >> my name is michael, i was a member of the medical cannabis task force [inaudible] and patient [inaudible] committee. and [inaudible] i'm in support of number four here, but number

three, i first of all very upset as [inaudible] said it makes no reference to medical cannabis so a member of the public that didn't know what was going on today would be blind sided by this. there's no real appropriate /tphoetsz given that this is about restricting medical cannabis access. i think there is serious problem. i think it's a problem when you refer to a sense of unease in the community. think that's discriminatory and i feel it's really a very negative thing to say. we're people, parents and if people feel uneasy that are about medical cannabis users, that's their problem, not our problem. there really aren't enough dispensaries in the city. there could be more, that's why number four is important. the reason for the clustering in the green zone is because the rest of the city doesn't have safe access. addressing them before will alleviate many of your surgeons about density in the number three, but at the same time how

many walgreen's do you have in your district and how many coffee shops and other stores you have no objection to, but yet no more than three cannabis dispensaries? i think that's absurd. thank you. >> my name is lisa, i'm going to be the first speaker in support of your legislation today. i am a resident of the proper amazon district and i'm here to say that i support this proposed neighborhood commercial district and i support severely limiting the density of mcd's in this neighborhood. we have the highest concentration of children and elders in the entire city. our main street suffers from graffiti and now at risk youth. my life has already been impacted by it. i no longer walk down mission south of geneva after walking there with my 7-year-old,

seeing people standing on the street saying i just want to smoke weed all day, which is not something you want to expose a 7 /kwraoerpld child to. i am avoiding streets in my neighborhood. our lives /#r busy with work and parenting. we've participated in tree plantings, restoring rundown property. in what little too many underfunded public schools. we do not have the free time to constantly battle each and every new on mission and geneva streets. if we are using our limited en/skwrer influences we'll have nothing left overto create positive change. i ask you this, if it is not a business you'd like to see a block from your houses, do not guilty approve it for the

excelsior area. we deserve permanent protection, internet gambling and other businesses that are not family friendly. thank you. >> next speaker please. all sides, can we refrain from booing or clapping. it just helps for people to feel more comfortable to speak. >> we've been active in the community since 2003 working with city hall to write regulations, also working with supervisor daily when john avalos was [inaudible]. we're thankful for your continued support. we're troubled by this pro/soez sal and understand the concerned constituents. there needs to be a policy discussion about locations in san francisco. i want to know, and we need to know why

we're rushing ahead before the planning didn't concludes their study before even considering this perceived clustering problem in the city has been caused by the restrictive zoneing issues, which needs to be addressed and expanded. san francisco has a history of mcd's around we're an example to everyone, so if we create restrictive policies that will echo throughout the united states. we hope you will delay this ordinance until the planning department makes the final -- on a personal note, please encourage all politicians that have tried to back up the medical aspirations of patients, do not enact dispensaries, strip clubs .

>> thank you. just a response. i'm concerned about residents, i'm concerned about conditions and what i did say i'm opening comments was that we do have conditions that are increasing of negative businesses and if we actually had our district going in the other direction where we were actually seeing a greater diversity of businesses coming in i don't think the mcd's coming in i don't think mcd's would be that big of an issue. that's something that i think as a supervisor i need to really be conscience of and aware of and stand up for. it's unfortunate that people feel this is about targeting mcd's. that is not my intention, but i can see how you can make that conclusion. >> my name's theresa cooper, i'm with access of love. i've served on the medical

cannabis task force, the patient advocacy committee. i have a friend who owns a dispensaries, i've worked there several times. what i know is the planning department wants to increase the green zone. i'm sorry mr. avalos, but that is true. and i don't know why you're railroading this whole ordeal to get your way. people that smoke medical cannabis are disabled and poor and taking a look at the mayor's comment on the homeless situation, you know, he's not scoring real high. so in my mind you're not scoring real high because when i tried to talk to you about medical cannabis when you were running for mayor you didn't have time to talk about it. you said you'd talk about it when you became mayor. i'm concerned about some of the

views and that you would take on your district. if we look back to caramel, denice schmidt was taken off that policeation. there was a lot of pr going on in the streets so i'm not really believing the complaints. i think that you are possibly going in with other people to turn against our community. we need medical cannabis dispensaries, that's a fact. and the poor and disabled are the ones using those services to consider who you're impacting really. >> i'm here today because i want to bring to your attention what i believe is an important need for a time-out. i believe that this issue of increasing the restrictions on the placement of cannabis

dispensaries comes too soon in advance of a citywide study that's logical. secondly, i've been a long advocate in the central neighborhoods of san francisco. mid market street in the tenderloin and for a long time, in fact from one of the first days that i drove into san francisco, i looked at market and i thought i wonder why this mid market is in such a depressed condition when surrounding neighborhoods are growing with such great advances. well, it didn't take reducing the number of medical dispensaries for cannabis to bring about a resurgence in mid market. it didn't bring about reducing the number of cannabis dispensaries to increase the diversity of businesses. what was necessary was both the economic and social factors. coming together, along with the support, not the restriction from our supervisors and mayor, but the support of our

supervisors and mayor to move in the right direction. if we want to legislate for good neighborhoods, we don't legislate against things, we legislate for things. we try to move in the direction that is positive. you mentioned that you didn't want us to link all these bad uses and felt bad about that, but /tp-fs your opening comment that linked the uses of medical cannabis with internet gambling. none of us have those connections in our minds. i believe a time-out is necessary, i believe some cooler heads are beginning to enter the discussion. i believe if we were to have a couple of weeks and maybe even a month, we would be here with a much more united voice to have some ideas that will actually work. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is nicholas, i'm a san francisco american's for safe [inaudible] director at spark in san francisco here.

i work in a dispensary that is less than 500 feet away from another dispensary and what we've seen with having two dispensaries there together is a much improved block over what was there prior. i started working there before we were opened, the neighborhood was a lot different. we've only helped that with our security, presence in our neighborhood. the we need more access throughout the city and to simply say that you can't have anymore dispensaries in one district while not granting any opportunities for dispensaries to open anywhere else in the city isn't fair. it's not the right way to start a process of opening up the green zone. we need to start with not a negative, and start with a positive and move guard from

there. we know -- i think you made reference to it in your opening statements that there is a study that says that crime is reduced around dispensaries so that just helps all of our neighborhoods, particularly the ones that are blighted at the moment. i want to thank you for your continued support. you've always been there for us. i want to point some of the good operators in our city that we need more of. people like basa, people like the green cross. we need more dispensaries like that. they're great businesses great if any location regardless of where they are. thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker please. i'll call more cards. tony bowls, shawn ingram, nicole young, nicholas -- i already called your name, tony

i called, gary s. >> hi, my name is laura, i'm a long time residence of is excelsior district of 25 years and i'd like supervisor avalos saying so beautiful about what's going on in our neighborhood. i'm a compassionate person. i have a relative who suffered from cancer who was helped from medical marijuana. i think that things in our district have been so did fficult and it's such a dell kate time in regards to business and whatnot, that while we support having these dispensaries, two or three is plenty and i don't know how many of you live in the neighborhood we're speaking of. i have heard very few people identify with living in our area. we're trying to do right for all who live in our neighborhood so diversity is very important to us on a personal and business standpoint. i want to thank you again for

putting this forth. thank you. >> good afternoon gentlemen, my name is nancy. i think what laura said pretty much hit the nail on the head. i have been a resident of the excelsior for ten years. i too have [inaudible] need medical marijuana. i don't think it needs to be in my backyard. there are three dispensaries already in the excelsior district and we certainly don't need a fourth one which is a block away from one that is already existing. i went around to have a petition signed by the residents of the excelsior who have been there over 30, 40 years who are not able to get to this hearing today and most of them -- all of them were completely shocked that a second dispensary was even thought about being opened so close to one that was already opened. i wish that -- this needs to be looked at. we don't need all this in our

backyard and they need to be distributed equally in san francisco. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is henry. i'm 15 years old and i live in the excelsior neighborhood. i'm not against medical marijuana, i'm just against clustering. i don't feel it is something positive to have all of those marijuana stores next to each other. a lot of people are comparing it to walgreen's, but last time i checked walgreen's sells a lot more things and anybody can go to walgreen's. i think that these need to be spread out and be available to everyone everywhere, but not -- i'm looking at this from a point of view, /spwhob somebody who lives in the neighborhood, and it's not right for people who grow up to grow up around that. i think medical marijuana should be /khroeszer to

hospitals than residential areas, but i -- please don't allow a second marijuana store so close to my home. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is patricia, i'm the block captain for [inaudible] neighborhood watch. we have over 130 members. about nine block area. i've been resident of the excelsior since 2008 and i've been very involved in my community since 2010. the commercial area is only three blocks long in my neighborhood. it goes from [inaudible] to silver. what we have there is a church, with not a lot of activity except on sundays, we have the green cross cannabis dispensary, which seems to be a great neighbor, but when you walk by you can't see in the windows. it's odd to walk past because

you can't see what's going on. we have an internet gambling place. the blinds are closed. if you walk along these three blocks there's nothing inviting. we'll never get a bike shop, cafe, a bookstore, if we get another pot club. it's just one more blacked out store front. nancy, my neighbor mentioned a me petition. i have copies of signatures and also have a printout from change.organize.we have 75 handwritten signatures on the petition. that only represents about 15 percent of the homes we've been able to get to since we heard about this hearing and were able to come up with something. we're not against pot clubs, not asking for more pot clubs, we're asking for moratorium for accepting a lucky dragons

application for a pot club until the board of supervisors can figure out what a true workable green zone in san francisco is. if lucky dragon opens, it's there, we have to live with it forever. we don't want to live with it forever. we want the studies completed and then we can see what happens. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello, my name is kevin brown. my waif and i both live and work in your district and very much support the medical cannabis access that's grown since we moved in. since we got there there was only one dispensary and luckily for me they had some medicine i liked but all the dispensaries are different, the medicine they provide is different the healing they provide is different every patient has different needs and the more variety of providers that are

variable to patients, the more chances of patients getting their specific needs. you can't lump in one or two dispensaries and say that's enough. there's never enough. there's always an option 'cause there's tons of medicine available and the wider the variety the better. the /*r it's a very diverse town and the diversity of needs is huge and there shouldn't be a limit on any district, especially not without opening up the green zones. that should happen first 100 percent. if you're going to ban anything, it should be with stipulation you're giving expansion to the rest of the city. that would be the only reason to restrict anywhere else. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker. >> you want to use the

overhead? >> no. i want to thank you first for this opportunity. i want to say that i'm with american's first safe access, nation's largest organization that works on medical cannabis issues and i want to say first off that we strongly oppose the recommendations to institute a 500 foot buffer between mcd's, but i would also like to say i agree with supervisor avalos we need to open up the green zone. this sets a dangerous precedent in our city. if we're going to restrict it in addition -- if we're going to face additional restrictions then we need to open space in other areas. this action is premature. it could undermind the entire regulatory system. it's time the city allows dispensaries to open in more areas.

article 33 requires new mcd's to obtain a land use permit before the juaning commission for bad acting medical care dispensaries. if a licensed mcd become a nuisance they can be penalized and their licenses revoked. this action is reactionary. the worry of residents not used to having medical cannabis dispensaries in their neighborhoods, but the reality is much different than their fears. research shows conclude regulated dispensaries make wonderful neighbors because they reduce crime and improve public safety. on top of that, the middle elders and working class deserve safe access and in fact, i'd argue need it more.

a majority of americans choose some form of complementary medicine that's more affordable and has less side effects than pharmaceuticals. cannabis is a safe and effective medicine. dispensaries reduce crime and increase public safety. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon. my name's barbara, i represent approximately 500 to 600 people. our association is in support of /saoupber visor's legislation. we are always in support of safe access. we leave mcd's and we believe it is a good thing for all of us. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> hi, my name is shawn, i own a business around the corner from tree med and mission organic. we've been open for about two years. innocent last year or so we've seen an increase in dealing on the streets, they've had to hire extra security guards for surrounding businesses. there is a lot of kids that live in that area. 40 percent of the families have kids. i think two more is really not needed -- the clustering there. no new businesses are coming in, business vacancy rate has gone up, people are moving out there and want places to go. it's not going to attract new

businesses if there's five pot clubs, internet gambling and all that stuff. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name's andrea and i'm actually shawn's partner. we own a small business and as small business owners on geneva and mission we're not trying to wage any type of war on medical marijuana, we're just trying to do what's best for a struggling business border. we've seen an influx of families in the neighborhood and alarmed by the general consensus from them that they do on the mission corridor. we need businesses on our corridor, but more mcd's are not the businesses we need. we already have three on the main stretch, which is plenty to serve the needs of the area, especially since two of them deliver all over the city. our corridor is already struck /-lg to attract new businesses that will serve the needs of families and other residents.

it's harder to attract these businesses when what's seen outside these businesses include traffic congestion largely from people coming from other areas, double parking, only to access the mcd's and leave the area. we've we're not asking anybody to remove existing access to any medical marijuana. we're just saying that three mcd's in our area is enough for an area that's lacking so many other services for its residents. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good evening. my name's nicole and i'm the corridor manager at the excelsior that works to revitalize the corridor of mission street in the excelsior. on behalf of the excelsior action group i'd like

to express my strong support for establishing the excelsior outer condition use restrictions it would impose on the clustering of medical cannabis dispensaries. one of the primary areas is business attraction and support. there are two goals to our work in this area. first we aim to promote economic vitality through a healthy and balanced business mix. second, we try to attract and support community businesses that cater to the large population of /kpwro*ut, seniors and families that reside in the excelsior neighborhood. too many of any business type can hurt the business mix of an a corridor. it's my firm belief that the excelsior corridor has enough cannabis dispensaries.

>> we were restricted from neighborhoods because people thought we were going to bring property values down. i worked in the south for civil rights, you name the minority now, medical cannabis patients i've represented them. it always makes me startled

when i hear the buzz words that are used to discriminate against a minority group such as medical cannabis patients. the last speaker talked about a healthy mix of businesses. you know, economists talk about a clustering /e effect as an efficient way to increase business. why are there four gas stations around a corner. turns out that's an economic effect because it brings more vitality service and competition. so all of the arguments about a healthy mix -- just sophisticated buzz words that seems to me to undermind the basic principal we're bound to protect here in san francisco which is that if we're /tpwoeupbg to discriminate against people or businesses we have to have a good reason. we can't throw out buzz words, we need statistics.